The final relic this year is by Harriet Hill, a potent reminder of the Greenham Common protests that started in 1981, The Women's Peace Camp. The sculpture containing a piece clipped from the perimeter fence, has been placed on the monument to martyrs Elias Thacker and John Copping who were hanged in 1583 for their principles. 

The Quiet Relics

To think of all the stories that we’ll leave
unearthed, unheard; a perfect skimming stone,
the soil-drowned bones of garden birds,

the boarding card still holding someone’s page,
all left, unclaimed. Listen. A twisted loop
of fence pressed like a seashell to your ear

so you can hear the waves of female voices,
thick with rage, the campfires’ spit and crackle
like a thousand quiet, angry hearths,

the faint staccato of the cutters, cutting
at the fence. Only in silence you can hear
the hum of ordinary stones, unsacred

scraps of wire and slate, driftwood and bone,
each coursing with unknown significance,,
each keeping unfound secrets of its own.

Anna Kibbey


The fence knows…

… about the whirr of a B-29 overhead,
how a man inside, who’d named the plane after his mother,
pressed a button,
and the Little Boy fell,
twisting children going to school
into charcoal.
In a flash, a buzzing city became flattened ash.

The fence knows that they did it again,
launched Fat Man from another plane,
turning toddlers playing nursery games to dust.
Women running,
heads split open,
peeling skin.
Another 100,000 lives gone.

The fence knows that years later men still toyed
with machines that kill,
enough to eradicate the world.
Stored them near a crowded city,
building an enclosure
to protect
the weapons, not the people.

The fence knows about the women who walked from Wales
to demonstrate their disgust.
Later 30,000 joined hands, sang songs,
encircled the chilling base within,
held up mirrors to reflect it back,
dressed as teddy bears, to
stir some feeling, memories.

The fence knows about the women weeping
and weeping and weeping
because it was the only thing left to do.
They’d cut the fence,
pulled it down,
danced inside
and still the icy mindlessness endured.

S.A. MacLeod

​
Harriet Hill is based in South East London. She creates sculpture, site-specific installation and interactive live art that responds to the visceral qualities of materials, physical space and social frameworks. These may be structural, spatial, experiential or tactile. She is interested in the way these elements affect us and how they can be manipulated.​
Working in a playful and dynamic way she uses evocative materials such as elastic, cardboard, felt and tape. She creates sculpture or contextual drawings that stimulate narrative through using the installation space as part of the work. By revealing or highlighting what is already there a viewer’s perception of an object and it's environment can be shifted or changed.
http://www.harriethill.co.uk
https://www.harriethillfabrication.com/
https://www.axisweb.org/p/harriethill/
https://www.instagram.com/harrietlhill/

Anna Kibbey is a British writer living in London with her husband and two children. She is studying with Ella Frears at CityLit, and has published work in magazines and journals in the US and UK. You can find more of her poetry on Instagram at @by_annakibbey
​
S.A. MacLeod's short stories have appeared in The London Reader, Northwords Now, Pulp Net and the Fish Anthology. Since the pandemic she has been writing poetry that has been published by Coin-Operated Press and longlisted by The Butcher's Dog. Born in the north of Scotland, she spent seven years working in Japan and is now based in South London. She is interested in creative work that speaks out against oppression.
www.samacleod.net  @lejolimai22

Five pin boxes, a limited edition of relics, by David Falkner. They might be useful to Sew Much To Do, Fast-Stitch, Sylwia Style, Pocket Watches and Petticoats, May Alterations. The response is by Deborah Bowkis.

Faded Blue

It’s gone, the past
but sentiment ’s a magnet,
we store memories in a matchbox
and beetles in a box,
keepsakes in coffins.

They’re personal not universal
yet as sacred, as the skin of a saint,
we can’t remain pinned to the past.

There are a few layers to Caroline Wright's relic. It comprises two now redundant slides, a medical image on each, which depict a tumour and the associated measurements, the warmth of a knitted cover that wraps around.

Caroline's relic is tucked up next to Cancer Research in Abbeygate Street. The response is by Phil Barrett.

Medically speaking
the body is
a remarkable place,

with its ability
to repair and replace
blood,
flesh
and bone.

Even organs
like the heart

become
removable,
replaceable,
functions

packaged
like relics
from the past.

While these images,
wrapped-up
in their woolly sleeve
or muff,

white as a babies
first booties,

first knitted cardi,

cot blanket,

or shawl,

preserve
the evidence

that we are
human,

unpredictable,
unfathomable,

after all.

Phil Barrett


Caroline Wright is an artist and researcher whose practice is site specific and realised in various media.  She has made work for cities and rural locations, on beaches and in buildings of spiritual significance, for festivals and for galleries. Her current Doctoral research investigates if the practices of drawing, swimming and writing address the lived experiences of rapid coastal erosion and is based in her home county of Suffolk, England. Wright has exhibited nationally and internationally including commissions for Cambridge University, London 2012, PSi 19 San Francisco USA, Edinburgh Festival, the Law Council and international BAR Associations, Royal Ulster Academy, Southwark Park Gallery and Wysing Arts Centre. Wright is Programme Leader for Fine Art at the Open College of the Arts and a founder member of the Misreading Group. Twitter: @carolinejwright Instagram: carolinejwright1

​Phil Barrett originally trained as a visual artist,, and he was Head of Art at the Purcell School for 27 years. He has won prizes and been published in a number of poetry anthologies; and since retiring has both read and led creative writing workshops, for adults and children, in a large number of schools and libraries in North Norfolk.
 
In 2012 he was instrumental in launching FALCON (Facilitating Art and Literature for Children Of Norfolk) an initiative designed to increase creative opportunities for children, which ran until 2018. Phil currently runs a monthly writing session called ‘Writing On The Spot’, along with an ‘Arts Forum’ at Holt Community Centre, where he interviews people who have made a significant contribution to the arts locally and beyond. In January 2017 Phil published a book of poems, with Grove Publishing, called ‘Writing Me’.

Kate Murdoch's very modern relic has found a home by Hughes electrical store at the top of St John's Street. Does anyone have the technology to play it and find her message? The response is by Natalie Low.

Kate Murdoch's work centres around everyday objects and is driven by a lifelong passion for collecting. Her creative practice is inspired by her day to day experience and draws on both past and present relationships with others. The repurposed objects she presents, frequently open up opportunities for discussion around class, privilege, gender adn female identity. Wider themes of loss and remembrance run through the work, reflecting her fascination with the permanence of objects versus the fragility of human existence. www.katemurdochartists.com Instagram @katemurdochartist Twitter @katemurdochart Blog 'Keeping It Going' on a-n Artist Network: https://a-n.co.uk/blogs/keeping-it-going-1/

Natalie Low enjoys putting words on paper and believes that everyone has a book of some sort inside them. She has published two chapbooks, Dementia (2015) and School Run (2017). She is a regular contributor to CollectConnect exhibitions, both as a writer and artist/maker. Instagram @nat.low Facebook Natalie Low ​